Enlightenment Through Understanding

The Elites

October 4, 2016

After a certain point, enough is enough of the whining about ‘the elites’. If ‘elites’ are supposed embody the barriers to happiness and freedom in an ‘ideal society’, one need not have have look very far to find them. The reality is, gatekeepers, barriers will always exist, and they are much closer to home than in Congress, the hallowed halls of a university, or in the mountains of Davos, Switzerland. It’s the boss who fires you or passes you up for promotion; the paper/publication that rejects you; the girl who rejects you, etc. By that definition, ‘elites’ are everywhere.

Let’s just assume there are super-elites with nefarious intentions who are pulling the strings. Then what. We can vote for Trump, I suppose, who despite being an ‘elite’ himself, like Roosevelt, is a ‘traitor to his class’. But it may be too late:

Electing either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump cannot change that trajectory. Because each candidate represents constituencies hostile to republicanism, each in its own way, these individuals are not what this election is about. This election is about whether the Democratic Party, the ruling class’s enforcer, will impose its tastes more strongly and arbitrarily than ever, or whether constituencies opposed to that rule will get some ill-defined chance to strike back. Regardless of the election’s outcome, the republic established by America’s Founders is probably gone. But since the Democratic Party’s constituencies differ radically from their opponents’, and since the character of imperial governance depends inherently on the emperor, the election’s result will make a big difference in our lives.

I saw this go viral on several NRx sites, indicating a possible shift in NRx thought – from rejecting constitutionalism in favor of Monarchy, to an approach that involves reforming/mending the republic (however futile that may prove to be), an approach I have advocated for awhile here (turning back the dial 100 or so years. Although the founders were Lockean in spirit, that’s infinity better than what we have now). The realization as the election nears is that Trump, although far from perfect, offers some respite, that even monarchists are getting on board.